Art Donovan, who grew up in the Bronx and played for the NFL’s New York Yankees was part of the 1952 Dallas Texans football team.
Long before Tex Schramm conceived the term “America’s Team” when talking about his Dallas Cowboys football team, Dallas was the home to the original and real “America’s Team.” This Dallas team had two future Hall of Famers, Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan. It also had the only coach ever to patrol a Dallas sideline not to win a championship, Jimmy Phelan.
Today, there is pageantry in Dallas or, more specifically, Arlington on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys, along with the Detroit Lions always host the Turkey Day game. Oddly enough, in 1952, the Dallas Texans “hosted” a Thanksgiving Day game.
Phelan, according to the Bronx native Donovan, will never be confused with Hank Stram (who won a championship with the AFL’s version of the Dallas Texans in 1962. They moved shortly after that to Kansas City), Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson or even Barry Switzer. But as Donovan explained, Phelan was an integral component in this band Akron is not Texas Stadium and there were no Cowboy cheerleaders on at the Rubber Bowl.
The 1952 Dallas Texans rose from the ashes of the New York Yankees, who folded after three years of struggling as the New York Bulldogs and Yankees in both the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. Dallas was a big high school and college football hotbed and should have been a good pro city.
It did not take off. The Cotton Bowl was nearly empty. The Texans averaged 15,000 people a game in their first three home contests and the owners gave up after the fourth home game. The NFL took over and the Texans became the Hershey, Pennsylvania’s team and Akron, Ohio’s team.
Jimmy Phelan’s Texans finished 1-11. Maybe it was Phelan’s pep talk. Donovan said Phelan always ended his inspirational message the same way. “Boys, be careful out there and don’t get hurt.” Maybe it was just the players. Donovan stated that the two worst teams ever assembled were the 1950 Baltimore Colts and the 1952 Dallas Texans. He should know, he played for both.
By 1952, Donovan was probably scratching his crew cut. The Colts were 1-11. When they folded, his contract was assigned to the Yankees who were 1-9-2. In training camp he got an inkling as to what he was about to encounter with the Texans when the owners hired Willie Garcia as their equipment manager in Kerrville, Texas. If a ball was passed or kicked into the high grass, the Texans sent Willie to get it because he had only one leg. The players figured Willie stood a 1-in-2 chance to get a rattlesnake bite.
By Thanksgiving, the NFL moved the Texans daily operations to Hershey. The 0-9 Texans would meet the 4-5 Chicago Bears of George Halas as the second half of a high school-pro double header at the Rubber Bowl in Akron. The Texans were the home team. “In the morning they had a high school game and they must have had about 20,000 people in the stands. When we went out to warm up, there must have been about 3,000 people in the stands.
“Now Jimmy Phelan was one of the greatest men I ever met in my life. But football had passed him by years before. In his speech before the game he told us, ‘We gonna dispense with the customary introductions and go into the stands and meet ’em individually,” said Donovan in his very familiar thick Bronx accident.
“We went out and about eight guys climbed over the fence and started shaking the people’s hands. Then we played. And then we beat ’em.”
The Dallas Hershey-Akron Original and Real America’s Team Texans did win their Thanksgiving encounter over the Monsters of the Midway, 27-23, on a very cold day in Akron. “It was so cold that we two fires going during the game and guys put their hands near the fire to stay warm,” said Donovan with a laugh.
How the Texans ended up in Hershey/ Akron is easy to explain, according to the man known as Fatso. ‘The team folded after the game that was supposed to rescue us against the Rams. We played them in the Cotton Bowl and they expected about 50,000 people and, lo and behold, it hadn’t rained in Texas for about a year and that day it stormed. About 10,000 people showed up and the team folded.
“We then went to Hershey. From ‘Hershey we went to play games in Akron, Philadelphia, and Detroit. I’ll tell ya what. It was a great experience.”
One NFL team took them seriously. The Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles were next on the schedule after the Bears and, for some reason, sent John Huzvar to scout the Texans.
“Who’d wanna scout the Dallas Texans?” asked the incredulous Donovan. “Huzvar went back and told his coach, Jim Trimble, ‘You won’t believe this, but they were practicing by playing volleyball over the goal post.’
“Trimble said, ‘You’re lying to me.’ But Huzvar said that’s the honest truth.”
Donovan verified the story. He said Phelan just didn’t believe in hard practices or practices at all. “If we had a fairly good practice, Jimmy Phelan would say ‘Hold the phone, we’re looking too good and we’re liable to beat someone. Everybody in.”
When the Texans finally won, Donovan, who had only left the field just twice before in his NFL career in victory, saw something strange. George Halas was so furious about losing he kicked one of his players in the rear end. “We were walking off the field with Billy Stone, who was with us in Baltimore. We were all crossing the field laughing and Halas ‘ comes up and kicks Billy square in the (butt) saying ‘You think that’s funny?’
“We also heard Halas kicked all the dinners off the trays on the Bears’ plane ride home. He must have been really mad.”
The Texans never came close to winning another game – losing to the Eagles 38-21 and to Detroit 41-6. Phelan was fired and only 13 Texans moved to Baltimore after Carroll Rosenbloom purchased the team. Donovan was one of them and ended up with two NFL championship teams in 1958 and 1959. His uniform number, 70, was retired and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Art Donovan grew up near the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
